A youth group in the Niger Delta on Monday accused Ms Ankio Briggs, the arrowhead of the opposition to the allocation of a grazing area to cattle herdsmen in Bayelsa, of working for some political interests in the state.
The youths under the auspices of the Niger Delta Youths Coalition (NDYC) also stated that the self-styled Ijaw activist, has been heavily induced by the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience and her co-travellers, who are intent on jeopardising the current peace being enjoyed in the state.
Specifically, the NDYC said that after collecting huge sums of money from Mrs Jonathan to lead a protest aimed at inciting the people of Bayelsa against the Bayelsa State Government, it was now obvious whose interest Ms Briggs and her sponsors were serving.
According to the youth group, from the information at its disposal, the decision to restrict herdsmen and their cattle to the Bayelsa Palm for grazing was one of the best that had been taken in recent times.
In a statement signed by the NDYC spokesman, Mathew Fobiri and made available to journalists in Yenagoa, while the so-called protest was hinged on the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle grazing in Bayelsa Palm, the sponsors had ulterior motives. “The real motive of the protest is political and it is all about 2019”, the statement noted.
The NDYC spokesman said: “Politics is what is at play here and we must sound it loud and clear that as Niger Delta youths we cannot allow ourselves to be deceived and used by those who have failed us before to further plunge our the Niger Delta into crisis.
“As for Ankio Briggs, she should come out and tell the whole world the truth. Pointing accusing fingers on the Bayelsa State government is all part of the grand design to make the Dickson-led government unpopular including leading a sponsored protest when she can afford to engage the governor one on one.
“The claim that she was beaten up by thugs sent by the state government is all lies. She was reportedly sharing money to youths in the Tombia Roundabout of the state capital, before a fight broke out among the youths over the sharing formula”.
While aligning with the state government’s decision to restrict the herdsmen and their cattle to Bayelsa Palm, NDYC insisted that the decision of the government was in the best interest of the state.
The group opined that the action of government has pre-empted herdsmen/farmers’ clashes as seen in many states including in the neighbouring Delta State, “where people have been killed by Fulani herdsmen in the last couple of months”.
